Share This article

Bioengineers at Stanford University have created the first biological transistor made from genetic materials: DNA and RNA. Dubbed the “transcriptor,” this biological transistor is the final component required to build biological computers that operate inside living cells. We are now tantalizingly close to biological computers that can detect changes in a cell’s environment, store a record of that change in memory made of DNA, and then trigger some kind of response — say, commanding a cell to stop producing insulin, or to self-destruct if cancer is detected.

Stanford’s transcriptor is essentially the biological analog of the digital transistor. Where transistors control the flow of electricity, transcriptors control the flow of RNA polymerase as it travels along a strand of DNA. The transcriptors do this by using special combinations of enzymes (integrases) that control the RNA’s movement along the strand of DNA. “The choice of enzymes is important,” says Jerome Bonnet, who worked on the project. “We have been careful to select enzymes that function in bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, so that bio-computers can be engineered within a variety of organisms.”

Like a transistor, which enables a small current to turn on a larger one, one of the key functions of transcriptors is signal amplification. A tiny change in the enzyme’s activity (the transcriptor’s gate) can cause a very large change in the two connected genes (the channel). By combining multiple transcriptors, the Stanford researchers have created a full suite of Boolean Integrase Logic (BIL) gates — the biological equivalent of AND, NAND, OR, XOR, NOR, and XNOR logic gates. With these BIL gates (pun possibly intended), a biological computer could perform almost computation inside a living cell.

You need more than just BIL gates to make a computer, though. You also need somewhere to store data (memory, RAM), and some way to connect all of the transcriptors and memory together (a bus). Fortunately, as we’ve covered a few times before, numerous research groups have successfully stored data in DNA — and Stanford has already developed an ingenious method of using the M13 virus to transmit strands of DNA between cells. (See: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram.) In short, all of the building blocks of a biological computer are now in place.

This isn’t to say that highly functional biological computers will arrive in short order, but we should certainly begin to see simple biological sensors that measure and record changes in a cell’s environment. Stanford has contributed the BIL gate design to the public domain, which should allow other research institutes, such as Harvard’s Wyss Institute, to also begin work on the first biological computer. (See: The quest for the $1000 genome.)

Moving forward, though, the potential for real biological computers is immense. We are essentially talking about fully-functional computers that can sense their surroundings, and then manipulate their host cells into doing just about anything. Biological computers might be used as an early-warning system for disease, or simply as a diagnostic tool (has the patient consumed excess amounts of sugar, even after the doctor told them not to?) Biological computers could tell their host cells to stop producing insulin, to pump out more adrenaline, to reproduce some healthy cells to combat disease, or to stop reproducing if cancer is detected. Biological computers will probably obviate the use of many pharmaceutical drugs.

Interfacing computer logic to this level is kind of scary.
Does this mean eventually you could hack into another human being?
If you can control the behavior of a cell, could you control the whole organism?

Specifically on the self-destruction of dangerous cells – There is already a way to get diseased or older cells to self-destruct.Its called Autolysis. Its very effective, easy to instate (on-set by fasting) and used by every animal on the planet except humans. It is also very efficient; recycling reusable components and getting rid of harmful or unusable waste. Sick/injured animals in the wild won’t eat until they have recovered.

w_km

I’m not sure you, or many other readers of this article, fully understand this research and its implications. They haven’t interfaced traditional computer logic to biological molecules at all. Rather, they’ve designed a ‘transistor-like’ mechanism from simple biological tools to control transcription, and thus add to the computer narrative. It’ll be a while (ok, a very very long while) before biological computing means anything. Currently, there is no easy, or even remotely useful, way to interface traditional technology with these biological techniques. Unlike silicon, cells and organisms easily die or become useless when tampered with, so much of this highly-specialized research will yield few major advances for decades to come (in terms of computing at least, though some unforeseen breakthroughs will occur). To answer your questions: ‘hacking’ complex multicellular organisms, let alone human beings, is pure fantasy (sure, we can insert unique genes into various organisms and make fluorescent/hairless/mutants/hybrid organisms, but it’s not like the stereotypical ‘computer hacking’ or ‘taking over’. Cells do not have behaviors, but yes, we can and already do modify their functions (medications), albeit in a limited way which rarely targets gene expression as a therapeutic mechanism. On the medical frontier, its easier said than done to self-destruct ‘dangerous cells’, such as cancerous cells, since they don’t always wear the telltale black ski-masks (aka unique epitopes on the cell surface). Hence the relatively slow progress in cancer research. And you don’t seem to know what you’re talking about in the last paragraph so I’m not sure where to start with that one.

JDRahman

Thank you for clarifying.

Fasting has been practiced for over thousands of years and autolysis is well researched. Modern medicine doesn’t accept it, but modern medicine doesn’t accept acupuncture and cupping either.

Unlike you, I seem to have an open mind. So please don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about.

Let me tell you where to start on that one. Go read a few articles on fasting and autolysis and then come back.

http://brian23.com Brian

i want to be a matrix

http://brian23.com Brian

i want to be a matrix

http://InnovationBound.com/Costa Costa Michailidis

Hmmm….this brings up an interesting question. About 4.3 billion servers make up one internet, today anyways. Human beings have 100 trillion cells. I wonder how many internets would fit in each person…

http://www.facebook.com/richard.ziert Richard Ziert

We are creating, moreover continuing the creation of self destruction. . . but then, man has always done this. It really is too bad we are so flummoxed.

Erik

Am I the only one who laughed at “You need more than just BIL gates to make a computer, though”?

http://www.facebook.com/grant.tb.9 Grant TB

No. :)

Neen C

I would like to receive any research or information in regards to “remote neural monitoring” advances in protection for healthcare workers/industry to ensure “cyber” safety and maintaining privacy acts necessary for patient confidentiality Please, contact me at ninachumley@live.com

http://www.facebook.com/james.d.chinn James D. Chinn

Implementation of this technology will signify that we are now creating the true gods of the universe and we can ubiquitously stop looking for the Christian and all other mythological deities.

rpg101

Maybe soon if someone who hack with your buddy it can easily all your account in you bank would be transporable hahaha so insane..

http://www.plbg.at/ Franz Plochberger

Don’t use the word computer for it.

This biological transcriptor would be a very usefull organism, of course.

Some criterias are the same to a computer: a)storability b) repeatability c) influencing in/by BOOLean logic. But the flowing material is not a dead electron – it’s a chemical and living element.

Use of this site is governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Copyright 1996-2015 Ziff Davis, LLC.PCMag Digital Group All Rights Reserved. ExtremeTech is a registered trademark of Ziff Davis, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff Davis, LLC. is prohibited.